As a new mom, you face a lot of challenges getting used to life with a newborn. You’re also probably dealing with lack of sleep, new responsibilities, or even breast pain if you’re nursing.
And what about the deep emotional pain that comes after childbirth and won’t let up? Not the milder “baby blues” that typically go away after a week or two. We mean postpartum depression. This is a severe form of clinical depression related to pregnancy and childbirth.
It’s more common than you think. One study of 10,000 moms with newborns found that about 1 in 7 get postpartum depression. Luckily, most of those women find that treatment helps.
What Is Postpartum Depression?
It’s the type of depression you may get after you have a baby. It can start any time during your baby’s first year, but it’s most common for you to start to feel its effects during the first 3 weeks after birth.
If you have it, you might feel sad, hopeless, and guilty because you may not feel like you want to bond with, or care for, your baby.
Postpartum depression doesn’t just affect first-time moms. You can get it even if you didn’t have it when your other children were born.